Anna Fedkina, Central nursing student, was awarded a scholarship from the National American Arab Nurses Association in the field of registered nursing.

At a value of $1,000 per recipient, the scholarship was one of five awards intended to support nursing students.

The five scholarships awarded were the freshman scholarship, registered nurse, minority student, masters in nursing and nursing as a second degree. Applicants are judged on the basis of academic accomplishments, financial needs and a sincere desire to further their education beyond a bachelor’s degree.

“Grades and G.P.A. were not so important when deciding who would get the scholarship,” said Rosa Khalifa, president of NAANA and member of the committee that awarded the scholarships. “We wanted to see a real commitment to their education, as well as a strong desire to enter the workforce and strive to maintain people’s health.”

NAANA received a much stronger response to the scholarship program than they were expecting, receiving 30 applications for only five awards.

“It was such a difficult choice,” Khalifa said. “The quality of applicants was above what we expected. We were very impressed.”

Relatively young, NAANA was founded three years ago and has since enjoyed a constant increase in notoriety and members, as well as sponsor and contributors.

Allegiance Home Health Care, Inc. funded this year’s scholarships and although NAANA is raising funds to back the value of the next series of awards, Khalifa expressed her interest in sponsors.

“At this point, the association does not have a sponsor for next year’s scholarships,” Khalifa said. “If anyone is interested, we’re definitely willing to have that conversation.”

NAANA’s Web site, www.n-aana.org, defines the association’s mission to recruit and educate student nurses, as well as work to promote the status and importance of nurses and their professions. After finding out about the association and the awards they offered, Fedkina did some research on NAANA and found that her beliefs were in line with theirs.

“[NAANA] really focuses on helping people, no matter if they are not American, without being biased,” Fedkina said. “It is an amazing opportunity that they give everyone with these scholarships.”

Demanding and highly competitive, nursing is also a rewarding and meaningful career. However, it is not among college students’ top careers of choice, something students like Fedkina and associations like NAANA are trying to change.

“Doctors are very important, but they are not by the patient’s bedside all the time, the communication goes through the nurse,” Fedkina said. “Nurses can make all the difference, but there aren’t a lot of people in the field.

I really want to know how I can promote the love of nursing and the association’s message.”

On a personal level, Fedkina said, receiving the award made her feel validated as a person and a nurse.

“It gave me a nice feeling that all my hard work was appreciated,” Fedkina said. “Especially because the decision to give me the scholarship was totally unbiased. I’m not even a member; it showed me that if you really work hard, people will recognize your effort.”

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Monday, September 11, 2006 at 7:27 pm and is filed under Education News, Scholarship. Tags: College, Education News, Scholarship, Student, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.